The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for managing non-repudiation for broadcast messaging systems.
Various entities use a variety of electronic communication mechanisms to communicate with each other. One challenge that arises with the use of such electronic communication is authenticity. Specifically, when a recipient of an electronic message receives that message, he or she generally desires to know whether the message is authentic. In other words, the recipient desires to know that the purported sender is in fact the actual sender of the message. In addition, the recipient may desire that the message have a property referred to as non-repudiation. Non-repudiation in this case refers to the inability of the sender to challenge the validity of the message sent by the sender.
These concerns are in place on behalf of the sender as well. When the sender sends a message to a recipient, the recipient typically sends an acknowledgement that the message has been received. The sender may wish to know that this acknowledgement is authentic and that the recipient does not have the ability to challenge that authenticity.
One way to provide non-repudiation is through use of non-repudiation evidence such as digital signatures. In other words, the sender of a message can digitally sign the message, thereby indicating that the message is an authentic message from the sender. Similarly, the recipient of the message can provide non-repudiation evidence that the message has been received. To avoid an unfair situation in which either the sender or recipient provides non-repudiation evidence before the other, a trusted third party can be used. Specifically, the non-repudiation evidence can be given to a trusted third party. The trusted third party can then provide the sender's non-repudiation evidence the recipient and provide the recipient's non-repudiation evidence to the sender when both have been received by the trusted third party.
Given the various mechanisms used for electronic communication, it is desirable to use mechanisms to ensure that both senders and receivers of messages can have assurance that the messages they receive and send are authentic.